Dairy Free

What is important to remember about this dish is that the steak and the sauce never cook together. That way, all the meat juices remain in the steak; if you were to cook them together, the juices would seep out. Meanwhile, the pepper-and-mushroom sauce remains bright and fresh with the flavor of the tomatoes and vegetables.

Italians eat a lot of lamb, especially in the spring and summer. I recall that on every major holiday I would always see the whole animal slowly turning on the spit, and it was indeed delicious. I particularly liked to nibble on the rib bones, and my second-favorite was part of the shoulder blade. But when there was no holiday, the slaughtered animals were butchered and sold and enjoyed as lamb shanks, chops, and stews. For this dish, either the boneless shoulder meat or boneless leg of lamb could be used, but the shoulder is more economical, and I am sure this cut is what the Italian immigrants used. In this slow cooking process, the flavors harmonize and the meat becomes fork-tender.

Peppers are a New World product, but they rapidly took hold in Italian soil, especially in the regions of Calabria, Basilicata, and Sicily, in southern Italy. Most of the early immigrants came from these regions and, missing many of their traditional products, found a friend in the peppers they found in America and used them abundantly. Peppers are used much more in Italian American cooking than in Italian cooking, and can be found in recipes such as sausage and peppers, peppers frittata, chicken cacciatore with peppers, veal and peppers, and, as it would follow, lamb with peppers. A sturdy two-foot pepper plant yields an abundant quantity of peppers, and was a favorite planting in the small backyard gardens of Italian immigrants.

I am sure all of you have had some version of sausage and peppers, but this one is easy to make, and the sausages remain juicy. The idea is to cook the sausages and vegetables separately, and then combine them at the end. Even though sausage and peppers seem to be quintessentially Italian, peppers are a New World food and were introduced to Italy only after the discovery of the Americas. Italians quickly made them their own and incorporated them on their table. So, when they came to America as immigrants, peppers were abundant and used with excess in many of the Italian American dishes. They are now ubiquitous at every Italian street fair.

Puttanesca sauce originated in Naples and derives its name from “ladies of the evening.” The story goes that, between clients, the women of the evening in Naples would make this quick and delicious pasta dish. The easy procedure and simple ingredients—found in the cupboard, most likely—created a quick dish they could make without any major interruption of business. This dish was big on the Italian American restaurant scene in the seventies, I guess because it called for authentic Italian ingredients that were newly available then. Cured olives and cured capers are used a lot in southern Italy, to deliver a wallop of flavor with a small investment, and so this traditional dish continues today in Italian homes and restaurants across America.

Pork meat, which is nutritional and economical, is used a lot in Italy. Using the tenderloin for this dish guarantees a tender result, but one can use boneless shoulder or leg meat instead, cutting it into thin slices. You can also make this dish with chicken breast or boneless chicken legs. The sun-dried tomatoes bring a lot of flavor to the dish; I use them whole, or sometimes purée them in a processor and spread the paste on the meat, but in this recipe I slice them.

In Italy, wild fennel grows literally wild, all over the place, especially in the south of the peninsula. Duringmy travels across America, I also found it abundant as well, wild and cultivated, but the wild fennel grows especially aromatic in California. You can buy wild-fennel seeds to make this recipe, but you can just as well harvest them in the wild by picking the dried flower tops that harbor the fennel seeds in late summer. The anise-licorice flavor brings freshness to any meat when used as a rub.

I like to use a light beer, but heavier and darker beer adds more complexity.

This rub is great for steaks, roasts, rotisserie chicken, lamb, and even hamburgers. Make sure the meat is patted dry before applying the rub. It is great on the grill or roasted in the oven. When added to hamburgers it adds flavor and also keeps them moist.

This marinade works best when the chicken is cut up in pieces; I also use it to marinate lamb shoulder or lamb leg cut into pieces.

Make sure the meat is patted dry before applying the rub. This rub is great to flavor roasted potatoes as well. Toss 2 or 3 tablespoons of it with cut-up potatoes in a roasting pan, and roast as usual.

This marinade is great with all cuts of pork: loin, butt, ribs, fresh ham, or chops.

In America, commonplace coleslaw is made from green cabbage, but I do see shreds of red cabbage tossed into a mixed salad every now and then. When I was a child in northern Italy, we ate a lot of the cabbage family, from regular cabbage to Savoy cabbage to black kale. We ate red cabbage braised next to a roast, but we also made a lot of differently dressed salads with it. The secret—and the work—was in slicing the cabbage thin. But given today’s food processors and all their different attachments, and the reasonable prices of mandoline slicers, this salad is a cinch to make. You can even slice the cabbage a few hours in advance; just remember to toss it with some vinegar as soon as you slice it to keep its color bright.

This is one of the most classic Italian American cookies, and it is one of the easiest to make. In Italian American culture, these are simply known as pinoli cookies, the word “pinoli” referring to the pine nuts that top the cookies, a distinct Sicilian twist. The personal element in making this cookie is to ask yourself if you like it chewy or crumbly crisp—the difference is all in the baking time. With the timing given below, they will be a bit chewy, but of course it depends on how big you make them. Oh, so many variables in cooking!

When you think you have nothing to eat or serve, look in your cupboard. Providing that you have shopped for these Italian ingredients (most of them in a can or jar), you can make this delicious and nutritious salad in no time. I like it best at room temperature. It is a great appetizer, but it becomes a meal when topped with some grilled chicken or a can of tuna.

You might be familiar with this salad made with stale bread, but for some more texture and taste, try making it with taralli, often sold as pepper or fennel round bread biscuits at Italian specialty stores in the United States. Actually, taralli are small bread rounds, much in the style of bagels, which are baked and toasted to a crisp. It is a traditional food from Puglia, Calabria, and Basilicata. The story goes that the taralli were made specifically for the shepherds and workers to take to their fields. The taralli lasted and traveled well, and, once tossed with some condiments, they would revive and be delicious.

The most important element in making pizza or calzones is the dough. In this recipe, I give you instructions for making it all in one day. But usually I like to let my dough rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight: it develops much more complexity and flavor. This dough is good for calzones and focaccia as well.

Everybody can relate to a sausage-and-pepper submarine sandwich being Italian American, since it is served at every street fair in the Northeast. The use of peppers with sausages is not as prevalent in Italy as it is in the Italian American community here, but this is a delicious dish. Imagine turning it into breakfast, especially on a morning when you have a few extra mouths to feed. The recipe is easy to prepare, because the sausage is taken out of its casings and crumbled into the pan, and everything else is added to it. You just scramble it all together; do not worry about making a perfectly round frittata here.

Sausage and broccoli rabe are a marriage destined to last. Often served with pasta, most commonly orecchiette, this recipe is for quick, easy, hearty sandwiches with some greens in them.